Earlier this season, when the Blackhawks were losing most games and deploying one of the oldest rosters in the NHL, the losses were not only unsatisfying for fans but also meaningless to the team’s long-term plans.
Now that the Hawks have turned over their roster to youth — a process that is expected to continue through April — they’re still losing most games, but at least their kids are gaining experience riding the waves.
That was the case yet again in the Hawks’ 4-2 defeat Sunday against the Wild. It was an awful performance through two periods, during which the Hawks generated only five shots on goal, although they racked up 15 in the third and nearly rallied from a 3-0 deficit.
A few months ago, a lifeless outing like that would’ve been nothing but depressing. At this point, however, one can look at it from a glass-half-full perspective: the more things the team does wrong, the more things their young players can learn from moving forward.
“[They] have to learn that this league is tough,” interim coach Anders Sorensen said. “You have to find your opportunities to create offense. But you also have to find your shifts where you have to realize, there’s not much going on, I just have to play [it safe].
“Especially as a ‘D’-man, you have to advance pucks, keep it efficient that way and obviously defend hard. Sometimes [for] young players, that can be a learning lesson. Today, it was for a lot of them.”
Those lessons aren’t coming solely from Sorensen, either. For example, rookie forward Frank Nazar has been receiving advice about determining the right times to take risks — and the right times to avoid them — from veteran center Jason Dickinson for weeks.
“[We’ve talked about] little things about situational awareness [based on] time of the game, period or shift,” Dickinson said. “[We’ve talked about] when to make a certain play or a certain read because you know certain guys on the ice are tired and you’ve got to help them out.”
Nazar continues to improve. His third-period goal Sunday — set up by an assertive drive to the net by rookie defenseman Ethan Del Mastro — gave him goals in consecutive games and five points in his last four games.
He also committed a couple blatant turnovers, reminding everyone he’s not a finished product yet. But no 21-year-old is, and by finding out on the fly what not to do in any given situation, he’ll have a better sense of what he should do the next time he finds himself in such a situation.
Ethan Del Mastro played 18:22 tonight and recorded his first NHL assist but was also on for two goals against.
Sorensen: “He battled. [He] got stuck a couple of times in the D zone, maybe trying to do a little bit too much. But that wasn’t just him; it was us as a group.”
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) January 27, 2025
The latest youthful addition to the Hawks’ roster is Landon Slaggert, who was called up Sunday to fill Taylor Hall’s spot. If Slaggert plays Tuesday at the Lightning, it’s possible nine of the Hawks’ 18 skaters will be 23 years old or younger: Connor Bedard, Alex Vlasic, Lukas Reichel, Nolan Allan, Colton Dach, Louis Crevier, Del Mastro, Nazar and Slaggert.
In some games back in October, that number was as low as three.
In the Hawks’ 4-3 overtime loss Friday against the Lightning, all three goals were scored by rookies — Dach, Nazar and Crevier — and young goalie Arvid Soderblom recorded 36 saves.
A game like that, despite the result on the scoreboard, almost certainly benefits the organization’s long-term future more than, say, the 4-2 win in their home opener against the Sharks in October did, when Hall, Tyler Bertuzzi, Nick Foligno and Jason Dickinson were the scorers and Petr Mrazek tended goal.
The presence of youth doesn’t entirely excuse the losses, which are getting old for everyone. General manager Kyle Davidson, who will speak publicly Monday for the first time since firing Luke Richardson in early December, realizes there’s some urgency now. But it does make the losses a little easier to stomach.